America has always been somewhat of a plutocracy, to one extent or another, ruled by the rich. Yes, there are those moments in history when the working people have shared some of that power, but it was won by blood and tears. We'll take a look at some of these struggles in the coming weeks, including examples from history and from more recent years and the present.
The Bush administration is not yet totally irrelevant, and given the damage they've done it will be quite some time before they will be. In the last days of their lame duck administration, limping toward the finish line, they are pushing through a wide range of bureaucratic changes that will make things easier for big business at the expense of working people. OMB Watch has compiled a list of changes that the Bush admin is attempting to push through, it includes these provisions :
" A rule to ease restrictions on mountaintop mining companies was first proposed in January 2004. The rule would allow the companies to dump the waste generated by mountaintop mining into rivers and streams. "
"For a rule that would exempt factory farms from reporting air emissions from animal waste, officials from the White House and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency met with representatives from the poultry, pork, and turkey farm lobbies."
"An upcoming rule that will make it more difficult for employees to claim unpaid leave for family and medical emergencies mirrors part of the request of the National Association of Manufacturers, a lobbying group."
" While some rules have been rushed, others have been in development for years. Critics have long feared upcoming rules that will make it easier for power plants to avoid installing pollution controls or allow trucking companies to force their drivers to work 11-hour shifts."
Every administration does crazy things at the end of its tenure, remember that Clinton, on his last day in office, pardoned notorious white collar criminal Marc Rich. What Bush is attempting to do with his last days in office will be far more harmful to working people in ways that may be hard for Obama or Congress to overturn.
For more information on this issue see this report from
Democracy Now!
